Custom Deck of Cards Part 1 🃏
Why I am Doing This ❓
Why not? I mean, just the thought of having a physical something made by you is an amazing feeling in my opinion. I get to work on a new form of project and also, I can use this project as an excuse to improve my art.
What Inspired Me? 🤔
This whole idea of making my own card deck arose when I started playing card games such as Uno more often. Another factor that helped me is during the development of the Tamagochi game, my friends and I decided to print a dress-up sticker set of the dog with some in-game clothing. And with that my passion for for physical objects of projects I work on was re-embarked.
But before I actually decided on a card game however, I thought about printing a custom laptop sticker, but I quickly scrapped that idea because, it would just ruin the aesthetic of my laptop and I had already printed more than enough stickers in the past. After spending more time thinking about what I could possibly bring into the real-world, I thought about working on my own card deck. Reason being, they are cheap to produce and I just needed to draw a crap load of characters.
As for what I was going to draw, I first thought about drawing original characters, however in my case, I prefer drawing a different character every time I draw something new, hence I never settle on a character that I can actually call 'original'. With this issue on hand, I decided to draw the cast of Higurashi characters. You might ask; "But why?", and I genuinely have no clue why, maybe it's because I'm too invested in the story for the past few months, or maybe it's because I can't think of any other characters to draw about.
Current Progress 📊
The deck will consist a set of 52+1 playing cards and a joker card. In total 13+1 characters. Each character except the joker will be printed 4 times.
So far, I roughly sketched out 4 characters, these include;
| 🂡 Ace | 🂮 King | 🂫 Jack | 🂭 Queen |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
| Sonozaki Mion | Houjou Satoko | Hanyuu | Furude Rika |
NOTE: The images are resized, the original resolution is around 1200x2000.
I am also planning on adding characters such as;
| 🂢 (Card of 2) | 🂣 (Card of 3) | 🂤 (Card of 4) | 🂥 (Card of 5) | 🂦 (Card of 6) | 🂧 (Card of 7) | 🂨 (Card of 8) | 🂩 (Card of 9) | 🂪 (Card of 10) | 🃏 (Joker) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Maebara Keiichi | Ryuuguu Rena | Takano Miyo | Tomitake Jirou | Kuraudo Ooishi | Kyousuke Irie | Chie Rumiko | Sonozaki Shion | Houjou Satoshi | Sonozaki Oryou |
| Finished | Finished | Finished | Finished | Finished | Finished | Finished | Finished | Finished | Finished |
DISCLAIMER: The drawings above are NOT mine! They are the original sprites from the game. The images are merely a reference for the reader.
The card each character will represent is already decided, but I might tweak some of them before the printing phase.
Other Requirements 📝
At the moment I am planning on making the cards the size of mini playing cards, the reason being, that they are smaller and more portable than regular poker cards. And so I searched around the internet until stumbled upon this amazing playing card template that provides high-quality card templates.
For the choice of materials, I settled on, 350gr paper with rounded edges, matte coated surface, and size of 5.4cm x 8cm.
As for casing, my initial plan was to have a standard paper box, but one of my friends suggested that I use a custom printed plastic case instead. With that thought in mind I found some outstanding free 3D printable models from Cults3D. Additionally, I will edit the model of my choice to engrave a custom Higurashi logo on it.
Afterword
I wasn't planning on writing another blog post so soon and this long, but for some reason, I feel the need to write these, even though I know almost no one except 2 of my friends read them. Even if that is indeed the case I am happy to be able to write these posts on occasion. Thank you once again for reading this blog post, I will probably write another or update this one when I draw more characters. See you later 👋🏻!
Short Updates
2022/05/21 - I am well aware the update to the post happened earlier than I expected, but I just finished the rough sketch of Chie Rumiko. She came out cuter than I thought. I am planning on showcasing the new characters in the upcoming progress update.
2022/05/22 - Wow, another update! I just finished the sketch of Ryuuguu Rena. Next in line is Sonozaki Shion. If everything goes smoothly or I am not lazy, I should have a finished sketch of her in the upcoming week.
2022/05/28 - Phew, I guess I am done with Shion Sonozaki. I am not super happy of the sketch, but this will do for now, I might redraw her if I feel like it. Next in line is Takano Miyo.
2022/06/02 - Drawing Takano Miyo was enjoyable, I am particularly pleased with her eye and overall expression. Also the last female on the deck is Sonozaki Oryou. In all honesty, I've never drawn an old person in my life, and I feel like everything's going to go wrong, but I will try my best to make her look somewhat good. When I finish drawing Oryou I will post a blog post showcasing all 9 characters I sketched so far.
2022/06/19 - I am finally free from my exams! I am not planning to focus on this project 100% since I still have other stuff to work on aside from this small project. Anyways, I finally finished the sketch for Sonozaki Oryou. This time I will definitely write a new blog post regarding the new characters.
New updates will be written on Custom Deck of Cards Part 2